Showing posts with label Bat-Mite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bat-Mite. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Deleted Scenes!

Cartoon Network has announced airdates for a couple of new B:TBatB episodes, starting with Battle of the Superheroes!, which is actually the fifth episode of Season 3, airing March 25th. That's the one with Superman, but I can't say anything much about that until Warner Bros. decides to let some stuff leak out, so instead, I'll use this post to gab on at further length about Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!, which also had its airdate announced. And that airdate is...

April the First!

That's pretty much the perfect airdate for Bat-Mite. Well played, Cartoon Network!

But now that an airdate has been announced, I feel hesitant about posting any more B-MP:B'sSC spoilers. So that spoiler-filled Batboy post I was planning will have to wait, but I wanted to post something more than the news about the airdates, so here's the compromise - I'll post stuff from the Bat-Mite episode that never actually made it to the air. No spoilers in footage that isn't actually in the show, right?

Normally we don't have much in the way of deleted footage, but Bat-Mite has a knack for messing up our normal schedule one way or the other. This time around, when we finished the storyboard, we found that it was a couple minutes short of a full show, so we had to scramble to make some stuff up to patch up those gaps. We put back some of the gags that had initially been cut from the Batboy and Rubin section, James wrote the bit where Bat-Mite magically adds fight scenes to the Scooby section, I wrote a shark safety PSA, and James came up with one last thing - a commercial parody that we would have squeezed into the act break during the manga section.

First, a little history - for those who didn't live in Canada in 1987, you might have missed these department store commercials (although they were being rediscovered on the internet around the time we were working on B-MP:B'sSC).




They were directed by the amazing Greg Duffel in Toronto at his Lightbox Studio, with designs by the great Ty Templeton.




That's also Greg as the voice of Robin, by the way.




As a side note, these commercials eventually led to Greg's studio being hired to do some test animation that was used to sell a little show you may have heard of called Batman: The Animated Series.



So along with all of the other stuff, James wrote a script for our own fake commercial, and we whipped this little number up (pardon the crudeness of the drawings, I had to bang it out pretty quick)-


But then, a funny thing happened - when we added all the new stuff into the show, we were actually a minute OVER. So we cut the commercial, since it was easiest to lift out and also, it saved us from doing a bunch of new designs in an episode that already had to be completely re-designed three times over already.

That's it for now - the show will finally be on the air in a month, so everyone will be able to enjoy all the stuff's that's actually in the show, and I'll be more comfortable posting some more spoiler-heavy Bat-Mite stuff again. Superman news before that, hopefully!

Batman characters ™ and © DC Comics

Zellers logo and commercials ™ and © Zellers, probably

Zigglers logo and commercial ™ and © Warner Bros Animation, maybe?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hey, Bat-Mite, what's new?



Emperor Joker is on Cartoon Network this Friday? Awesomesauce!

Coincidentally, at least 3 of the characters on the cover of that issue of Who's Who will be appearing in upcoming episodes. Watch for 'em!

Art and characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

DOOM (Again)

OK, as Brianne has reminded me, {SPOILERS FOR SIEGE OF STARRO} Starro is dead now, {SPOILERS OVER} so let's move on and plug talk about my next episode, The Last Patrol!, which is airing this Friday for you lucky Americans with Cartoon Network. Of course, Australia has already seen it two weeks ago, so if you're the type who likes to spoil stuff for yourself, you can find info about the episode all over the internet already, including the special appearance in the teaser of {SPOILERS AGAIN}Batgirl{SPOILERS OVER}.

In non-spoilery news, The Last Patrol! stars my favourite superhero team, the Doom Patrol. I got to direct an episode featuring them (half of a two-parter) for Teen Titans many years ago, but I was still very eager to put them in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Fortunately for me, James was too, so here they come. The story is loosely adapted from a very famous DP story, although we had to change the ending for television, but I think we did a great job capturing the tone of the Doom Patrol all the same. I'll have a post with more stuff after it airs.

In other B:TBatB news, kind of mid-spoilery to non-spoilery, it seems like a lot of info is trickling out about Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!, our big crossover episode. Not so much from me, I think - I've been pretty good about not leaking stuff. Here's what I didn't leak - the episode will have three stories featuring 1/ a teaser with Batboy and Rubin from the MAD Magazine parody, 2/ a story featuring a version of Batman based on Jiro Kuwata's Japanese Batman comics from the 60's, and 3/ a crossover with Scooby-Doo.

Like I said, none of that got leaked by me - I've kept quiet for all these months. It hasn't been easy! So I don't think anyone will mind if I leak one frame from the show, right? So here it is - a genuine exclusive still from Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!





Man, I hope that doesn't get me in trouble with Warner Bros. I'm just so proud of this episode that I couldn't help but share!

It's a pity it wasn't finished in time for San Diego -  I mean, the episode that we did screen there, Emperor Joker!, was great and all, but B-MP:B'sSC (as I have decided to abbreviate it) is tailor-made to be screened at a comic convention surrounded by hundreds of the fans who would've appreciated it the most. But it'll probably air before the next San Diego Comicon (even with Cartoon Network's scheduling shenanigans), and who wants to premiere a cartoon everyone's already seen? I guess the timing just didn't work out, so that opportunity is lost.

If only there were some other comic book convention between now and the theoretical airdate - one that would maybe fly me out and put me up for the night - why, then all I'd have to do is square it with the powers that be at Warner Bros and we could screen the guaranteed fan-servicingest episode of any Batman cartoon ever produced! Ah, but that's just a pipe dream, I suppose.

Batman image ™ and © DC Comics.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Bat-News

So much happening all of a sudden! Well, just three very tiny little tidbits of news, but enough to rouse me from my blogging slumber.

Anyways, Cartoon Network is "tentatively" scheduling Siege of Starro! Part One for September 17.  That's tentatively good news for those who haven't already seen it via itunes, Amazon, On Demand or just by being in the United Kingdom 2 1/2 months ago.

And in other news breaking on the internet, we're doing a crossover with Scooby-Doo! Actually it kinda got leaked at San Diego, but the Comics Continuum article has a couple extra details, so check it out.

And finally, there's this, a little promo I directed for the upcoming video game. And when I say directed, I mean "watched Michael Goguen storyboard the whole thing then sat back and waited for Moi to do the animation". Either way, it turned out pretty sweet, so why not check it out? Hopefully it'll tide you over until September 17 (tentatively).

Friday, May 29, 2009

Big night tonight!

Hey, new Brave & the Bold tonight - check it out! Starring Bat-Mite!



Also featuring cameos from a wide range of Bat-villains, from the A to the Z list. If you can name them all without having to look it up, you deserve a Bat-prize!



I think at least 60% of it is viewable online already, but please, do try to catch in on Cartoon Network tonight at 8:30. Or it'll probably air again tomorrow morning if you miss it tonight. But try and catch it sooner or later, it's pretty bizarre even by our standards, and it was a ton of fun to make, so that means it'll be fun to watch too, right?